Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

Novelist Tom Garrett (Dana Andrews) and publisher Austin Spencer (Sidney Blackmer) intend to show how lawyer Roy Thompson (Philip Bourneuf) has been using circumstantial evidence in capital punishment trials. They concoct a scheme in which flimsy evidence will point to Garrett as a murder suspect, but Spencer will exonerate him at the end. Meanwhile, they keep the plan a secret from Spencer's daughter, Susan (Joan Fontaine), who is engaged to Garrett. However, the trial doesn't go as planned.